An annular solar eclipse will occur at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Friday, July 2, 2038, with a magnitude of 0.9911. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 6 days after apogee (on June 26, 2038, at 13:55 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be smaller.
This solar eclipse is notable as it is the closest eclipse in Saros 137 to the subsolar point with an eclipse gamma of 0.0398.
Annularity will be visible from parts of Colombia, Venezuela, Grenada, Barbados, Western Sahara, Mauritania, northern Mali, southern Algeria, Niger, Chad, southwestern Sudan, South Sudan, southern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya, and southwestern Somalia. A partial eclipse will be visible for parts of eastern North America, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America, Africa, Western Europe, and the Middle East.
<br />Animated path
Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.